The Importance of Common Language

-From Sir Gorin's Book of War

Previous Chapter: What Makes a Game Not Fun

Okay, so all of these thoughts and ideas are well and good, but HOW do you actually accomplish any of it? Well, we have our “Who” (is struggling)and our “How” (are they struggling). In just a moment we’ll take a look at some different elements that we can use to help us build and define battle game as well as discussing their implementation. But before we do that, I’d like to take a moment to talk about the idea of a “common language”.

So let’s say you’ve planned a great battle game, and you have explained the rules to everyone, and the reeves are all on board. What do you consider next? This is your opportunity to look at the bigger picture of your park’s battle games and ask yourself: “Am I being consistent?”. This is where Common Language comes in.

In order to keep the “Confusion Factor”™ as low as possible, it’s critical that game concepts remain the same. This doesn’t mean run the same battle game every week. It means that the ideas used in a battle game remain as constant as possible.

For example: Your park frequently makes use of “Boundaries” in your battle games due to space limitations. The penalty for “going out of bounds” is death. But what does “going out of bounds” mean? A single step over the line? Both feet being over the line? Being over the line for more than 5 seconds? It is important that the definition of “Out of Bounds” remains constant. Even if you clearly explain the rules every battle game, these smaller “definitions” should remain the same. By doing so, you create a “Common Language” that will vastly speed up your ability to explain game rules, give the players less to focus on and allow them to enjoy the game while minimizing needless arguments. This eventually grows into a cultural element and allows your veterans to quickly and confidently help new players understand games.

-Next Chapter: The Battle Field (Game Design Elements)